I love my Friday vegetable shopping. Why do I have a feeling that I have already said that earlier?? Because I have! I can’t talk enough about my love for vegetable shopping especially when I spot vegetables and fruits I have never known before.
Last friday I found some of the most gorgeous Eggplants at my Organic store and as always I was very exited. These were so incredibly fresh that it looked like it was just picked from the plant a couple of hours ago. I bought some, got back home, took photos and shared it on my FB page. I had never seen any eggplants like this one. They were small and white with long wing like crown around the stem. I had never seen this variety of eggplant before.
Thanks to the power of internet and my ever helpful readers, I soon discovered they are ‘African Eggplants’. Somebody also told me that they are called ‘Chitte Badane’ (Butterfly eggplant), ‘Rekke Badane’ (Wing eggplant) in Kannada locally. Whatever it was called, it really looked stunning… well that’s the eggplant lover speaking
I cooked the eggplant with whatever I had in my refrigerator without any recipe in mind but it turned out to be super tasty. The fresh green chilies used here were grown in my parents farm (reached me that same morning). They are fragrant and fleshy but not very hot. I have used only fresh ingredients here expect for the turmeric powder. I deliberately hold back on using ground spice powders if I want the taste and freshness of the vegetable to be highlighted. Here in this, you can taste the meaty eggplant, bitter fenugreek leaves and hot green chilies without a dozen other flavors interfering with them. Since the eggplant and the fenugreek leaves are both a little bitter, I balanced it with a tiny amount of jaggery. Feel free to skip it or simply increase the amount of shallots/onions used. Slowly roasted onions turn beautifully sweet.
This is simple home cooking at it’s best. I cook one vegetable like this every single day with very little oil or spices and I never get tired of all the different combinations I can come up with.
Notes:
Use any variety of eggplants you like.
You can use any kind of mild peppers/chilies in this recipe. If using very hot chilies, use just 1 or 2
Make sure you don’t over cook the eggplant, it can be mushy and unappetizing.
This can be served with rice + dal, chapati, used as stuffing in Indian style sandwiches and in wraps along with some raw vegetables for crunch.
Ingredients:
- 4-5 small white/green eggplants
- 7-8 fresh big green chilies
- 1 packed cup of fresh fenugreek leaves
- 1/2 cup of thinly sliced shallots/onions
- 2-3 springs of fresh curry leaves
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1-2 tsp jaggery powder
- salt to taste
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
Cut the eggplant into thick wedges and place them in cold salt water for 5-7 minutes.
Clean and chop the fresh fenugreek leaves and slit the green chilies.
Heat oil in a pan. Add the shallots/onions and curry leaves. Fry in low flame for 3-5 minutes until nicely caramelized, soft and sweet. Add the green chilies and the (completely drained) eggplant. Mix everything well, cover and cook in medium flame for 2 minutes. Add the turmeric powder, jaggery powder, salt and sprinkle some water, cover and continue to cook in medium flame for another minute or two. When the eggplant looks half cooked add the fenugreek leaves. Mix everything well and let it cook without the lid for all the water to evaporate.
Serve hot.
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Last friday, on November 30th I had my first ever presentation on eating organic and healthy food and it couldn’t have been on a better platform than BioFach 2012, South Asia’s Largest Organic Fair. It was a wonderful experience for me to share my journey with everybody and I can’t thank The Alternative enough for organizing this. ‘Nature on my plate’ was a fabulous concept and I am sure it was very beneficial to a lot of people. Thank you so much for providing me this opportunity. Here are some photos from my session!

10 comments :
Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen December 7, 2012 4:39AM
Such pretty eggplants, I’m not sure I’ve seen them that shape before.
Mallika December 6, 2012 5:31PM
That looks delicious! I am drooling over those eggplants spiced with green chillies!
Sanjeeta kk December 6, 2012 11:13AM
Those eggplants look so pretty..love the methi tough in the curry!
swati December 4, 2012 2:55PM
the eggplants look so cute, and the combination of fenugreek and eggplants is quite unusual but sounds very interesting. i think that this recipe cannot go wrong!
Susmitha - Veganosaurus December 4, 2012 1:56PM
Looks delicious, Chinmayie!
Thanks for your very informative talk about switching to organic at BioFach.
Jayasri December 4, 2012 8:32AM
I have never tried this combo looks really yummy, I love brinjal & Methi, I would love to give this a try
dassana December 3, 2012 5:07PM
as a eggplant and fenugreek lover i can well imagine the taste of this dish. and i liked the way the green chilies have been used with minimal spices.
Brooke (Crackers on the Couch) December 3, 2012 4:13PM
I just bought two huge purple eggplants yesterday because they were on sale. Do you think I should peel those first since the peel is so tough?
Helene Dsouza I Masala Herb December 3, 2012 3:08PM
They do look very unique the eggplant. I have certainly not seen those in goa! We have something in common with the “keeping an eye out” for new ingredients. I like what you did with the brinjal and I hadn’t tried using fenugreek leafs in combination with the aubergine before.
Revati December 3, 2012 3:05AM
From one eggplant lover to another, this looks simply fab. I love how there is so little that interferes with the hero of the dish..Going to try this with the regular small purple eggplants we get here..